Mitt Romney is guilty of misinterpreting a remark issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and then attributing the incorrectly interpreted remark to President Barack Obama. Before the attack on the embassy in Benghazi, the Cairo embassy issued a tweet, critical of “continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” The tweet: 1) merely criticized the denigration of an established religion, nothing more, nothing less; 2) obviously did not blame the attack of the embassy on those who denigrate Islam; 3) was not issued by Obama. Many Republicans, including Steven Schmidt, who managed the McCain-Palin campaign, have been appalled by this inane shoot-from-the-hip approach to politics.

Nick Jaffe

Sunnyvale

Unfit to serve as president

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said yesterday he was shocked by the “rashness” and “the intemperance” of Mitt Romney’s attacks on President Barack Obama during the assault on U.S. missions in Benghazi and Cairo. Schmidt added: “What he accused the administration of doing” — sympathizing with terrorists — “the administration did not, in fact, do.”

Romney is unfit to serve as president. He will say anything, no matter how untrue and scurrilous, that might appeal to the most reactionary elements in American society. The thought that this dangerous, deceptive and unscrupulous man might one day have his finger on the nuclear button should be unacceptable to every American who values our survival.

Mark Starr

Los Altos

Put the blame where it belongs

Four Americans are dead in our embassy. An act of war. A result of our affirmative-action president who has embarrassed every American with his spineless incompetence. His detached response is to dismiss the incident as the work of a few Islamic radicals. Then he proceeds to resume his re-election campaign in Las Vegas. Vote Mitt Romney! Let’s put someone in the White House who will put blame where it belongs. And who will take questions from a sycophantic and feckless White House press and answer directly as if he represents us and not those who attack us.

Edward Binetti

Daly City

Greed for power, not patriotism

It is despicable that Mitt Romney issued a pre-emptive criticism of President Obama even as American Ambassador Chris Stevens was being killed in Libya. Not only was Romney misinformed and misguided, but he failed to adhere to a basic rule of American politics: Politics stops at the water’s edge. When our country is attacked, we stand behind our president, no matter what political party he belongs to. Romney’s statements demonstrate how corruptly he values partisan politics over uniting around our country. He showed greed for power instead of patriotism. Romney seems to think that he is exempt from our common rules of decency.

Bruce Joffe

Piedmont

Nonvoters choose to avoid the polls

When balancing the threat of “voter suppression” with the threat of voter fraud (Editorial, Sept. 10) you declare that the number of would-be voters who find themselves unable to vote on Election Day exceeds the known cases of in-person fraud. But you mislead your readers by implying that this somehow justifies the removal of common-sense voter ID requirements.

Any eligible citizen who wants to vote can register in time and then either come to the polls with his ID or arrange to vote absentee. And any citizen can get an ID. It’s been this way for decades.

The idea that voter ID requirements constitute “suppression” is a canard. The only thing keeping chronic nonvoters from the polls is their own free choice not to vote. When the disinterested are dragged to the polls and told whom to vote for, Democrats may benefit, but democracy does not.

Jess Rabourn

San Jose

Anybody else get a turn signal ticket?

The San Jose Police Department should be ashamed of their ticketing Mayor Chuck Reed for a turn signal violation. Do you know anyone in San Jose who has gotten a turn signal violation? What are the odds? We expect this kind of political theater in Chicago, but not in San Jose.

Denzil Fitch

San Jose

U.S. war on women? You can’t be serious

Our nation is facing serious problems with radicals in the Middle East. Yet, the Democratic National Committee wants us to believe that we have a war against women in the United States. It is very clear that the treatment of women in the society of the Middle East is morally corrupt. Mutilation, stoning, beatings are common. And do we have a war against women in this country? Let’s be serious about this.

In the past, America has fought many of the battles that freed people of this oppression around the world. Now is not the time for wobbling, weak-kneed politicians and diplomacy dealing with these threats, i.e., killing American diplomats and security personal on our soil called the U.S. Embassy.

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